HAND
by XiF
Summary: Lyra Heartstrings embarks on a journey spanning Equestria following a highly dubious clue.


HAND  
By: XiF

"Hi-Tecknical Support"

Lyra Heartstrings stared blankly at the mess. Various electronic parts, including brightly colored wires and microchips, were strewn across the floor. What was she going to do? Sweat beaded on her forehead as she swiveled her head, eyes landing on the old analog clock that always hung on the kitchen wall. What's the time? The hour hand was half way between the four and the five, and the minute hand was just past six. When would Bon-Bon be home? Five fifteen. You still have time, Lyra, she told herself. Forty five minutes wasn't that much more time, however. She would have to fix this problem quickly.

Bon-Bon would be furious! But what was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to piece this thing back together? She didn't know anything about electronics! Never needed to! Nope, good ol' magic was enough for this mare. She shook her head. That kind of thinking wasn't going to help. Whether the old thing was useful or not, she still needed to fix it! Maybe she could get help? Maybe someone could fix it for her.

That was it!

Lyra had an idea. She trotted out of the kitchen, down the long staircase, and into the basement.

"Now where is that old thing?" Lyra asked herself, illuminating the dark room with her magic. The basement was a small room. It was about as big as the kitchen‒ perhaps even a little bit smaller. It was filled with a lot of old junk; neither she nor Bon-Bon had ever bothered to clean it. Lyra trudged through the clutter, searching, when finally she found what she was looking for.

The old computer sat in the corner of the room, covered in dust. For some reason it seemed that this corner was exempt from the litter that brightly adorned the rest of the room; Lyra, for once, could actually feel the cold concrete floor. As for the computer itself, well... It was a crummy old thing; Lyra had bought it several years ago on a whim‒ like most of the other things found here. They rarely used it and thus it had found itself thrust out of the bedroom and into its new home in the basement. However, every once in a while there was use for the otherwise purposeless hunk of metal, one example being right now.

Lyra reached out and gingerly pushed the 'on' button and watched, as the computer sprang to life.

At first the screen was dark and only displayed bright green letters. Then, after a few moments, a pompous animation embellished the screen. Various colored orbs danced across the monitor until finally dissipating into Hi-Teck Co.'s characteristic logo, which in turn faded out into the desktop. Finding the light from the computer screen to be enough, Lyra ended the illumination spell. She put her hoof on the mouse and tried to maneuver it around the screen, but her attempts, unfortunately, were met with little success.

"Work, you stupid thing!" Lyra exclaimed, slamming her hooves on the keyboard. The time, according to the computer, was 4:43. She had to hurry... Lyra decided to use her magic to manipulate the mouse instead, and this proved much more successful. She clicked on Equinet Surfer's icon, and up popped the web browser. Clumsily, she moved the mouse up to the search bar and typed in, "Hi-Teck Support."

A few seconds later, the results popped up. She chose the first link:

Hi-Teck Technical Support and Consumer Services

A gaudy Equinet page showed up, displaying all of Hi-Teck's latest products. Below all of this was a small button labeled, "Support".

She clicked on it, and a new window popped up.

**Silicon Chip [4:51] : Hi, this is Hi-Teck Technical Support. How may I help you?**

Lyra typed in her response.

**Customer [4:52] : i have a broken mitlekylero**

**Silicon Chip [4:54] : I'm sorry, but we don't sell that product. Are you sure you didn't mean something else?**

**Customer [4:55]: im not sure it looked a lot like that to me**

**Silicon Chip [4:56]: I'm sorry, but I need to know the model before I can help you.**

**Customer [4:57] : one second, let me go check**

**Customer [5:01] : i think the model number is 45306**

**Silicon Chip [5:04] : I'm sorry, but we do not support that model anymore. You will have to purchase a newer version if you want one. However, we do thank you for your interest in our products. HAND!**

**Silicon Chip is now ****Offline**

Lyra stared at the screen in surprise. Hand? As in a human hand? As in a human hand with five fingers? As in a hand with a thumb, an index, a middle finger, a ring finger, and a pinky?

**Customer [5:06] : wait did you say hand? **

**We are sorry for the inconvenience, but  
it appears that Silicon Chip is ****Offline****.  
This window will close in 5 seconds.**

Lyra gasped as the the timer counted down and the window closed. Almost immediately, she searched for 'Silicon Chip'.

"Silicon chips for sale, computer parts for sale, silicon chips for sale," muttered Lyra scrolling through the search results. "No, no! Silicon Chip the _pony_!"

She searched for 'Hi-Teck Silicon Chip'. Again, she was rewarded fruitlessly by a page full of advertisements. She tried once more, this time adding 'employee' to her search.

Hoofington Branch Hi-Teck Employee of the Month: Silicon Chip

Lyra clicked on the link.

Employee of Month: Silicon Chip

April 1, 997

Congratulations to employee Silicon Chip for her outstanding performance this month! Silicon Chip has proved an indispensable employee, contributing many things to the company. She is very dependable, hardworking, and honest. In fact, she is one of the most reliable workers in the Customer Support department. During this month she has helped thousands of customers fix problems with their devices. Compared to the average employee, that's ten times more!

Lyra groaned and scrolled through the pompous passage, skimming it.

"That's it?" exclaimed Lyra. The only information she had on Silicon Chip was that she apparently worked at Hi-Teck's Hoofington Branch! And on top of that, the article was four years old! How was she supposed to get anything out of that? Perhaps... Maybe that was enough information?

But then there was only one way she'd find Silicon Chip...

"**LYRA HEARTSTRINGS!**"

Lyra knew that voice. It was Bon-Bon.

Uh-Oh.

Lyra slammed her hoof on the computer's off button. Turn off!

Becoming impatient, she jammed her hoof into the off button repeatedly, until the screen suddenly went black. Without the computer's light, nor Lyra's illumination spell, the room was pitch dark.

Think Lyra, think!

"**LYRA, WHERE ARE YOU?**" called Bon-Bon.

Lyra heard trotting near the staircase. Uh-oh. This was not good at all. Maybe she could hide in the computer desk? She tried stuffing herself in the small space under the computer desk where the computer tower and modem sat. It took her a few tries, but eventually, she found herself hopelessly crammed in a place way too small for her to fit in comfortably. Excruciating pain shot through her body as she tried to position herself in a more comfortable state.

"Oh, great," Lyra whispered to herself. "This is just fantastic."

"Lyra, are you down there?" called out Bon-Bon. Lyra didn't respond. There was still a chance that Bon-Bon would go away and this would all be over, at least for now. But of course things never happen the way you want them to. Bon-Bon trotted down the steps and into the basement. Lyra noticed that didn't hear the door open. Did she really forget to close it? How stupid! Bon-Bon flipped on the light switch– which Lyra had also forgotten about– exposing her to sight.

Bon-Bon almost immediately saw Lyra crammed in an unlikely place– although, nothing could quite be labeled 'unlikely' when it came to the mint green unicorn. Lyra was, quite simply put, absolutely daft.

"Lyra, _what_ are you DOING?" demanded Bon-Bon, trotting over to the computer.

"I uh..." stuttered Lyra.

"And just what, may I ask you, was my Mitlekylero doing in the kitchen?" Bon-Bon asked.

"Actually Bon-Bon, it's not called a Mitle-"

"I DON'T CARE!" screamed Bon-Bon. "What were you even doing with it?"

"It was an accident..." muttered Lyra.

"I needed it to make that special sweet Luna ordered!" exclaimed Bon-Bon.

"There's always the Sugar Cube Corn-"

"NO!" exclaimed Bon-Bon. "Never!"

"OK..." said Lyra thoughtfully. A plan was quickly taking shape in her mind. If Bon-Bon absolutely needed one of those Mitlekylero things (she mentally noted that she needed to stop calling it a Mitlekylero; that wasn't its name), then she needed to get a new one. Maybe she'd even need to go to Hoofington to get one...

"Don't you see, Lyra? I absolutely _need_ it! I can't process the sugar the right way with anything else!"

"Well, I looked it up and found out that we can get one of those things in Hoofington," said Lyra.

"Hoofington?" repeated Bon-Bon, surprised.

"Uh... Yeah. Hoofington."

"Where did you look this up?" asked Bon-Bon.

"On the computer," said Lyra. "On the company's website."

"But Hoofington is so far away from here..." said Bon-Bon.

"Well, if you don't want to go, I'll go," replied Lyra, all too quickly.

"No, no. I couldn't possibly let you go to Hoofington by yourself. Something terrible is bound to happen. No, I'll go myself," said Bon-Bon.

"Erm... I'd better come with you," said Lyra.

"Why?" questioned Bon-Bon.

"You see, er... I need to make sure you get there safely!" said Lyra.

"Lyra, you needn't worry about me!" replied Bon-Bon. "I'll be fine!"

"Yeah, but what about those wild Tikbalangs that live near the Spellwood Forest?"

"Wh-what are those?" asked Bon-Bon.

"You don't know about the Tikbalangs?" asked Lyra, feigning shock. "They're wild pony-eating beasts that prowl around the Spellwood Forest!"

"B-but the Spellwood Forest borders Hoofington!" said Bon-Bon.

"Yeah, it does. The only reason I mentioned it was because the company's headquarters‒ that's the closest place you can get a Mitlekylero– is near the town's outskirts," said Lyra.

"U-uh, ma-maybe you should come after all, Lyra," said Bon-Bon.

"If you insist, Bon-Bon," said Lyra. "When are we leaving?"

"We need to go immediately," said Bon-Bon. "Just let me get ready."

Lyra groaned. "Ah Bon-Bon, you don't need to dress up just to go to Hoofington."

"Just because you don't give much heedence to your appearance doesn't mean that I shouldn't." said Bon-Bon. "Et for the record, Lyra, I'm not dressing up."

"Et?" retorted Lyra, "I swear, Bon-Bon, you're getting crazier and crazier every day."

Bon-Bon, ignoring her, trotted away.

"Hey! Hey, Bon-Bon! Aren't you gonna help me?" called Lyra. "I'm sorta stuck here!"

Unfortunately, Bon-Bon was already out of view. Despite her pain, Lyra allowed herself a small smirk. Bon-Bon always was a gullible pony. Soon enough she would find out what Silicon Chip knew about humans; everything was working out perfectly. Lyra only hoped that Bon-Bon wouldn't change her mind in the four hours it would surely take her to get ready.

* * *

"How do I look?" beamed Bon-Bon. She was right about one thing, she didn't dress up. In fact, the only discernible change, as per Lyra's concern, was that Bon-Bon's mane seemed a little curlier than normal– if that was even possible. Bon-Bon stared at her, expectantly.

"You look exactly the same as normal. Now let's go," replied Lyra.

"Well, somepony's in a hurry!" said Bon-Bon, indignantly.

"I just wanna get this over with, OK?" said Lyra.

"Why, so you can get back to lazing around at home?" asked Bon-Bon, her voice bitter.

Lyra glared at her. "The key to being an _arteest_ is creativity," said Lyra, holding her head high. "And that only comes under certain conditions."

"Yeah sure, Lyra," replied Bon-Bon. "Creativity is what you get when you sit around all day and somehow manage to empty half the pantry."

Lyra groaned. "Fine, Bon-Bon. You look very posh-like. OK? C'mon now, let's go."

"Fine, let's go," said Bon-Bon, picking up her bag off its rack with her mouth.

"Do you need that?" asked Lyra.

"Undoubtedly," said Bon-Bon, swinging the bag onto her back.

"So yes," said Lyra.

"So yes," agreed Bon-Bon.

Lyra pushed open the front door. "Anything else you need before we go?"

"Nope, I've got everything,"

"Did check to make sure you didn't leave behind your 'Sapphire Shores Designed Eyelashes?'"

"Lyra, that wasn't funny in the slightest,"

"No," replied Lyra, "but it's pretty pathetic."

"Whatever," said Bon-Bon, brushing past Lyra and trotting out the front door.

"Hey, wait up!" said Lyra. "I have to lock everything up!"

Bon-Bon paused and turned around. "Fine. Hurry up."


End file.
